Dragonfly mural is colorful new addition in Akron Zoo fountain

The dragonfly is a symbol of life and transformation.

So it's fitting that a brightly colored dragonfly fountain mural, created by Akron artist Mac Love, now enlivens the Lehner Family Zoo Gardens at the Akron Zoo.

The zoo commissioned Love to create the mural, which he prepped and painted over a three-week period last month to create a vibrant, 11-color image of the insect whose four wings span in a curved fashion on the surface of the fountain.

"We were really looking at revitalizing our gardens," said zoo spokeswoman Elena Bell. "The whole garden area is 20 years old."

The fountain, built in 2003 along with the garden, had been a plain cement gray. Now, it's popping with blues, purples, pinks and yellows as a lively new focal point of the gardens, which feature more than 700 plant species.

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With the new dragonfly mural, the zoo is featuring a water pollinator for its fountain, along with its focus on land pollinators in the gardens.

"Our gardens have always held an emphasis on pollinators, with a butterfly maze and caterpillar centerpiece. Now with the addition of the dragonfly mural, we can represent wetland pollinators as well," zoo President and CEO Doug Piekarz said in a release.

To prepare for the mural painting, the zoo power washed and cleaned up the fountain.

When Love started working on the project in early June, he went over the whole fountain interior with a steel brush and vacuumed before applying a marine-grade, gray primer. The entire surface had to be covered in four hours, before the primer hardened.

Love, who documented his project on his Instagram stories, enjoyed including video of the garden flowers.

"It's not always just about the paint and the art. It's about the environment that it's in, and it really felt like a special place that I was getting to contribute something unique to," the artist said.

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He painted his colorful dragonfly design in durable epoxy paints that he mixed a hardener into. The longterm, waterproof concrete coating lasts 10 years, Love said.

He also built a wood canopy over the fountain to protect the epoxy paint he used, which dries in four hours but can still be sticky to the touch 8 to 24 hours later. He covered the canopy at the end of each day with a gray tarp to protect the paint from pollen, dust and debris.

Dragonfly design choice

The artist presented 16 design concepts for the fountain before a team of 10 zoo staff settled on the dragonfly.

Love wanted to create a an iconic mural that guests would seek out as a beloved backdrop at the zoo, including for wedding photos.

In the artist's research on dragonflies, he learned about their symbolism in several cultures. Native Americans believed they represented souls passing into the realm of the nonphysical.

For the Japanese, they symbolize courage, happiness, and rebirth. In India, they are believed to help people receive intuitive guidance from their higher self.

And the China, they see the dragonfly as a symbol of prosperity and good luck.

Early in the painting process, Love was visited by a dragonfly, which rested on an unpainted segment of the mural.

"That was really early on and that was a very special moment," Love said.

The artist, who photographed the dragonfly as part of his documenting the project, saw its visit as fortuitous.

"If a dragonfly visits you once, it's considered good luck. If it visits you twice, you didn't get the message the first time," he said.

Mac Love's process

To start, Love balanced a projector on a cart with a ladder and bucket to get it at the right height to see how the dragonfly's wings would fit from side to side on the fountain. He traced the sides of the wings in to get the correct scale and then drew the rest of the mural by hand.

The mosaic-styled work features thousands of shapes, including diamonds, houses, hearts, water flowers, waves and fish, in 11 different colors. The dragonfly is positioned above the water line of the fountain, while fish, plants and more continue the colorful design below the water.

Love's blog about the project can be seen at artxlove.com/blog/dragonfly-fountain.

Love enjoyed answering questions from kids and families who witnessed him working on the mural during zoo hours.

Common questions were: "How long does this take?", "Are you an artist?" and "Did you draw this?"

"I welcome that enthusiasm," Love said.

He didn't wear ear buds to listen to music during his long hours painting because he wanted to constantly tune in with the sounds of the zoo.

Spending time alone at the zoo painting after hours, up until midnight, was a special experience for Love.

One night that he spent painting under the tarp due to rain was especially noisy in as the zoo wolves were howling at nearby hospital sirens.

"There were animals scurrying outside the fountain" in the garden area, too, Love said.

The next night, another late night, was eerily quiet, like he was out in the wild.

"I told my wife when I got home, 'I definitely felt like the tigers knew exactly where I was,' " he joked.

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This is Love's second solo mural in Akron, coming after a jazz mural in 2015 at Northside. He worked solo due the high skills required to complete the mosaic-style design, the drippy nature of the paint at first and the fact that each color had to be completed within four hours.

"I had a muscle memory of where I was going in the mural and where I had to go back to" to paint, he said.

The zoo, which unveiled the final mural project in late June, has gotten amazing feedback from guests, Bell said.

"We've had a lot of kids looking for the different images that are hidden in the mural, so we've gotten a lot of really great feedback on social media," she said.

"Wow! This is brilliant and striking," said Megan Alubicki Flick.

"What a visual feast," said Lillian Dexter Thomas.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron Zoo transforms fountain with dragonfly mural by artist Mac Love